Facebook recently added Etrade as an underwriter along with usual suspects like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley (lead underwriter), Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Barclays and Credit Suisse and a whole host of smaller firms like Lazard and Muriel Siebert & Co. Inc. (see all 33 names are here). Separately Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade will be able to grab shares for select clients but won’t be official bookrunners.

For the newbie investor desperate to buy Facebook
/quotes/zigman/9962609/quotes/nls/fbFB at IPO, setting up an Etrade account seems likely the only hope to get rich off that first day pop. I’m not going to opine here about the wisdom of following the crowds but I’ve been emailing with lots of young people in the last month asking the most basic of questions about the IPO process. Without exception all of these kids use Facebook (duh) and are old enough to remember Google’s IPO. And I expect that Etrade is signing up lots of new accounts with the promise of a lottery ticket—a 50 share Facebook allocation.

And as I’ve told all the people who’ve asked me about it for the last year — and I can tell you that a lot of people, young and old have asked me about getting into the Facebook IPO — If you can get a decent allocation below or around $35 a share, I do think you’ll get a chance to sell that stock at a higher price. Always a risk, but at least for the IPO, I’d rather be long Facebook than not.

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About The Cody Word

Cody Willard writes the Revolution Investing investment newsletter for MarketWatch and posts the trades from his personal account at TradingWithCody.com He is the founder of WallStreetAll-Stars.com and the principal of CL Willard Capital. Cody serves as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University and is on the University of New Mexico Alumni Board. He was an anchor on the Fox Business Network, where he was the co-host of the long-time #1-rated show on the network, Fox Business Happy Hour. Cody, a former hedge fund manager, and his stock picks and economic outlooks have been featured on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, ABC’s 20/20, CBS Evening News, CNBC’s SquawkBox, Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, as well as in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and many other outlets.